Volunteer Appreciation Night 2015

At the conclusion of each school year, we celebrate the incredible dedication and enthusiasm of our volunteer tutors. 171 volunteers served at TPlus this year – that’s 3,440 hours of service!

On June 11th, we celebrated their work at the Phoenix Landing. We are so grateful to the Phoenix Landing for generously donating their space, food, and drinks for our event.

Each year, we present four awards in recognition of outstanding tutors: Unwavering Service Award, Rookie of the Year Award, Dale Troppito Unsung Hero Award, and Louis Menand III Volunteer Appreciation Award.

This year’s Unwavering Service Awards were presented to volunteers who have served with TPlus for three or more years:

The Rookie of the Year Award was presented to John Meier for standing out among not only new tutors, but among all tutors at his tutoring site.

The Dale Troppito Unsung Hero Award recognizes tutors whose dedication to their students and/or Tutoring Plus is unparalleled. Beginning this year, we are naming this award in honor of Dale Troppito. Dale and her husband Tony were volunteer tutors at our Jefferson Park high school site from fall 2012 – spring 2014. In the midst of tutoring, Dale was diagnosed with colon cancer. Throughout her battle, she continued tutoring as much as she was able, always showing up with amazing energy and commitment to her student. Dale lost her battle in March of this year, and through this award we honor her legacy.

Finally, the Louis Menand III Volunteer Appreciation Award honors the commitment and work of outstanding volunteers. This award is named in honor of Louis Menand III (1923-2008), a former MIT assistant provost and professor. His passion was teaching and challenging those around him to examine their actions and the impact of those actions on their communities and the world. Louis’ leadership helped to shape Tutoring Plus for over 20 years. His belief in the power of education, the importance of giving back to your community, and equality and fairness for all continues to live on in our programs and volunteers. This year, we recognized Julie Habbert, Kasia Chmielinski, and Nare Janvelyan.

Thank you again to each of our volunteers this year for their inspiring efforts and energy!